Justice Collective has beaten James Arthur to the Christmas number one spot (Picture: Getty)

The Justice Collective’s Hillsborough charity single has bagged this year’s Christmas number one spot defeating X Factor winner James Arthur.

The star-studded cover of He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother sold over 269,000 to top the UK singles chart.

Last week’s number one, James Arthur’s Impossible, slipped to number two after shifting an extra 224,000 copies, bringing its total to 713,000 since it was released.

Margaret Aspinall, chair of the Hillsborough Families Support Group (HFSG), said the single getting to number one was ‘brilliant news’.

‘The families will be delighted,’ she said. ‘We haven’t had very good Christmases for a long time so this is an extra gift. It’s obvious that it’s got a lot of support and they’ve got the message across to everybody. It’s truly amazing.’

Arthur started off the week ahead of The Justice Collective but by Wednesday he started to trail behind.

Martin Talbot, Official Charts Company Managing Director, said: ‘Congratulations to the Justice Collective on becoming the 2012 Official Christmas Number 1 with He Ain’t Heavy.

‘They fought a sterling campaign against one of the biggest singles of the year in James Arthur’s Impossible and are worthy winners – in aid of a very worthy cause.’

Sir Paul McCartney, Robbie Williams, Mel C, Rebecca Ferguson, Paloma Faith and Holly Johnson are just of the many stars who are part of The Justice Collective.

The Justice Collective are raising money to help out with the ongoing legal costs of the families of the Hillsborough disaster.

Proceeds from Arthur’s track are going to children’s charity Together For Short Lives.

Other Christmas number one contenders include Alex Day who is at number 25 with Stupid Stupid while Muhammad Shahid Nazir is at 29 with viral hit One Pound Fish.

The Eddie Stobart Truckers reach 47 with The 12 Days Of Christmas, while Robbie Williams’ Different is at 64.

Williams, who appears on The Justice Collective single, asked fans to buy the Hillsborough track instead of his single when he realised the release dates clashed.

Area 11’s Minecraft Christmas made it to 69 while The Games Maker Choir and Alistair Griffin’s I Wish For You The World was ranked 70.

Meanwhile, Emeli Sande has topped the UK albums chart with Our Version Of Events after selling an extra copies 178,000 this week bringing its UK total to 1.32 million in sales.